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Cokie Roberts: More People Should Fear the United States

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During a rather typically narrow corporate media discussion of the crisis in Gaza,Â ABC This Week pundit Cokie Roberts (7/13/14) weighed in to say the real problem in the region was the absence of fear of the United States:

It’s, you know, a real absence, though, of American leadership in the region, because I think that you’ve got these rockets going into Gaza from Syria and Iran. And, you know, we just haven’t made a strong enough presence in that region to have people be afraid of this country.

And so I think there’s a sense that, you know, they can get away with anything they want to get away with.

Roberts is repeating Israel’s claims that rockets launched from Gaza toward Israel were smuggled into the occupied territory by Syria and Iranâ€“assertions whose validity is often accepted by US media without much scrutiny (FAIR Blog, 3/11/14).

Nonetheless, her point is thatÂ the threat of US military force would stop allowing people to “get away with anything they want to get away with.”

Let’s look at recent history in the region. The United States led a disastrous and bloody war in Iraq. Nearby, the US is winding down a long war in Afghanistan. The US led a military campaign to remove Muammar Gadhafi from power in Libyaâ€“resulting in a violent and chaotic state. US drones attack Yemen and Pakistan.

What precisely would Roberts want the United States to do in order to instill more fear among weaker nations? The United States is the most prominent backerâ€“financial and otherwiseâ€“of Israel, which is unleashing a massive military campaign that has killed close to 200 people in Gaza, most of them civilians. During Israel’s last full-scale assault on Gaza, in December 2008/January 2009, Israel killed some 1,391 people, 344 of them minors.

Would more bombing ofÂ Gaza teach someone a lesson about what they can “get away” with? Should the US pick a different country to threaten in order to send that message?

For the record, the ABC roundtable had two right-wingersâ€“ABC fixture Bill Kristol and GOP strategist Ana Navarroâ€“paired with former Obama aide David Plouffe and Roberts. So I guess she mightÂ count as one of the liberals.